IR Remote: Keycodes but no scancodes?

polemon · 05-13-2007, 07:00 AM

Hi.

I have a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR110 TV-Card, and that infrared remote control that came along with it.

Now I'd like to use that remote as pseudo-keyboard for my desktop.

I learned, that there are many ways how to make that remote usable in linux.

First thing I tried, was assigning Keysymbols. This works semi-well, some keycodes are the same keycodes that my normal keybord sends. This isn't that much of a problem, since they match pretty well (Numpad on remote sends numbers, Media-key match the Media-keys on my keyboard). But some keys simply don't work.
xev doesn't get any readings from the device on those buttons, so my first thought was, that they're non-functional.

However, when I tried the remote under a text-terminal (no X), I discovered something rather interesting:

when I run showkey -k (keycodes output), I get Keycodes fore _every_ key. This leads to the conclusion, that every key on the remote actually _IS_ functional.
But when I run showkey -s (scancodes) I only get codes for the same keys, that I get keycodes under X with.

But how is this possible? I get Keycodes, for nonexistent scancodes?

The Keycodes for the scancode-less keys are strangely high: Ranging from 353 to 412.

Since I couldn't fix that problem in two days of work, I followed the advice of a friend of mine, and tried LIRC.

But this turned out not to be satisfactory as well.

Passing commands to irexec works well, however this is not really handy, when it comes to things like passing a "volume_up" event to the desktop environment.

I can send key-events to applications with irxevent, when I assign the proper keysymbol to be passed to that application.

This works well for some applications - like XINE - but I'd like to pass certain events so my KDesktop-Environment, "volupe_up" for instance. Sending XF86... keys seems to be a general problem for irxevent, though. I'd like them to have the functionality, the media key on my keyboard have, sending XF86... keycodes to the desktop.

Any ideas?

regeards

--polemon

titopoquito · 05-17-2007, 05:16 AM

I hope I understood you right. You can edit $HOME/.Xmodmap. If you use a graphical login manager it's $HOME/.xresources if I remember right. Part of my .Xmodmap file:

Code:

keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext
keycode 236 = XF86Mail
keycode 229 = XF86Search
keycode 230 = XF86Go
keycode 178 = XF86HomePage
keycode 223 = XF86Sleep
keycode 222 = XF86PowerOff
keycode 227 = XF86WakeUp

The keycodes come from my keyboards extra keys, so you of course have to modify them.
Then depending on your Desktop Environment or Window Manager you should use the specific way to assign shortcuts I guess. I am running IceWM and use aumix to deal with audio volume, but I think in KDE's control center you should find a way to assign shortcuts.

pelainux · 02-12-2009, 07:58 PM

I have a similar problem, Did you solve your problem?

I have connected my aluminium apple keyboard in my linux box but some keys are not working (F3 for example), showkeys report keycodes but no scancode.

xev show nothing, not detected at all for those keys.

titopoquito · 02-13-2009, 05:58 AM

If you press the F3 key with your keyboard, do you get some scancode at the end of "dmesg" output?

pelainux · 02-14-2009, 08:34 AM

Nop, I get no info in dmesg.

I have an interesting new piece of information: I have another Linux box (older), I plugged my apple keyboard on it, then I turned it on.
The keyboard didn't work until the SO start (seems the BIOS is not able to manage the USB keyboard) but after, the keyboard works with a wrong mapping but the F3 works.

After my reaserch (several hours) I conclude: "when no scancode but keycode in showkey() and no info in dmess is driver issue"
Next step: check the drivers in both computers.

Have somebody a diferent conclusion?